Bill Gates: the man who cut cases of polio from 3 50,000 annually to just 37
EVEN as a selfproclaimed optimist, Bill Gates must have known it was going to be a hard sell. The man who spent billions reducing poverty worldwide and who last year launched a $1bn (€840m) clean energy venture fund, was about to meet Donald Trump for the first time – a man who campaigned on an “America First” platform and who criticised the concept of climate change.
When Gates (61) came out of that meeting last November, he was hopeful – even likening Mr Trump to JFK.
Ten months later, Gates is seated in the Seattle headquarters of the Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organisation into which he and his wife Melinda have poured more than $31bn (€26bn) since its inception in 2000.
Mr Trump has since ripped up the Paris climate change deal, restricted the entry of refugees and demanded a budget cut of almost a third to international programmes, including the state department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
So, was his initial optimism misplaced?
“Well, everybody wants the president of the US to adopt their cause and get engaged in it,” he said. “And I’ve only had two meetings with him, the one in November and then one in March.”
Gates said that he and his wife are focusing on convincing congressmen, who ultimately pass the budget, and taking solace from the fact that HR McMaster and Jim Mattis, the two generals serving as national security adviser and defence secretary, have both made it clear they appreciate that development is cheaper and more effective than waging war.
“In the US, the executive branch and the Congress are somewhat more independent of each other than in a parliamentary system, which in this case is working to our advantage,” he said, “because the executive branch recommendation was a significant cut including in HIV, polio, and reproductive health.
“It’s clear that Congress prioritises this overseas spending – even if you say OK, we only want to do this if we see direct benefit to Americans in reducing pandemics, maintaining security, trying to help avoid mass migration...
“Even the Republicans in Congress are very good on: ‘no, we don’t want to withdraw from this leadership that we have’.”
Abandoning the Paris climate change agreement, Gates admitted, was a setback. But he hoped that the US might return, adding: “It is impressive that most other countries have maintained their commitment – including China, including Europe as a whole.”
Yesterday, the Gates Foundation launched its first ‘Goalkeeper’s Report’ on global development targets and a rallying cry for world leaders to keep up the fight. It is designed to show a sceptical world that money is making a difference.
For example, it says if HIV funding is cut by 10pc, 5.6 million people would die.
Malaria deaths fell 60pc between 2000 and 2015, to 29 new cases per 1,000 people. If funding was cut, the number would rise to 39 per 1,000 by 2030; if funding continues, it could fall to just five.
NEXT week, Gates will have Barack Obama, Queen Rania of Jordan, and pop star will.i.am behind him as he hosts talks in New York, during the United Nations general assembly.
“Objectively the world is improving,” Gates said. “We say that not because we think people should just blithely take that for granted. It does hang in the balance.
“Often you miss the story of improvement... a natural disaster has a milestone. But a reduction in childhood death? When is it a headline?
“It’s always very gradual ... because it’s one life at a time.”
The foundation has 1,500 employees, mainly in Washington state but with offices in London, Washington DC, Beijing, Delhi, Abuja, Addis Ababa and Johannesburg.
The Seattle employees have an airy, Scandinavian-style office surrounded by ferns and grass, and courtyards with trickling pools. A living roof covers the car park; the lavatories flush using rainwater.
The campus hums with efficient serenity; Gates himself is said to divide his time into five-minute blocks.
The highest-profile campaign, and biggest single investment, has been against polio. It was eliminated in the US in 1970, but in 1988 there were still 350,000 cases worldwide each year. Last year, there were 37.
The world’s richest man, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $85.3bn (€71.6bn), accepts that times are changing.
“We are being questioned more than ever, and the budget framework is tighter than ever. You have to prove the benefit even if you take an American-centric point of view of if the money is worth spending. And my answer is yes.” He paused. “But we haven’t been forced to make the argument that way quite as strongly as we have now.” (© Daily Telegraph London)